Driving customer-centricity by putting employees first

It’s hard to believe 10 years have passed since ServiceNow first opened its doors in Switzerland. In that time, we’ve grown from one office to five and increased our employee headcount tenfold to get to where we are now—supporting customers in every industry imaginable.

So, how did we get here?

Our success lies in the ability to keep people—customers and employees alike—at the heart of everything we do, and that has never wavered. Allow me to explain.

Putting customers at the heart

Growing our team allows us to bring more benefits to our customers. New departments and additional resources allow us to give our customers the attention they deserve, support them where necessary, and even bring them together to learn.

One example of our customer-centric approach is our Lunch and Learns. In these quarterly meetings, we bring our customers together to share experiences with us and—you might be surprised to hear—with other customers.

Manfred Eierle, director of EMEA central sales strategy at ServiceNow, says, “The impact of the Lunch and Learns has really been tremendous. The ServiceNow platform has so many great capabilities that there’s always something new to take on, and it’s so much easier for people to learn from others who have experienced the journey. It gives them the confidence and the belief that they can be successful in whatever they do.”

Not only do we hear directly from our customers what their needs are, but they can learn from each other how best to use our tools. As a result, we can build a much closer relationship with them, and our customers can become our greatest advocates.

I can say with confidence that cultivating these solid relationships has fuelled our growth. Dino Minichiello, ServiceNow sales director of manufacturing, public sector, and services, adds, “It’s been such a success that today our customers get together in much larger groups, across five different cities, in both the German- and French-speaking regions. They just love it.”

Nurturing meaningful employee connections

It’s not just about keeping our customers happy. The people at ServiceNow Switzerland have been essential to our growth, so taking care of them along the way is always a top priority. We’ve been able to keep the spirit of a much smaller company. Similar to a start-up, we’re agile, close-knit, and passionate about the next step our customers take.

Client Director Rene Haeberlin, who’s been with us from the very beginning, agrees. “Here at ServiceNow, we work hard to maintain an open culture. We listen to our employees, as they’re the ones listening to our customers. We encourage our people to act like entrepreneurs because we trust them to do well.”

This approach has kept our employee turnover rate low so far. And we want to ensure we maintain this and prioritise our culture as we grow.

While we’re always welcoming new talent, we make sure to hear everyone on the team—especially those who’ve been with us the longest and have the deepest knowledge of how we work. We make sure to include everyone in important decisions so they can see how their insights drive value across the business.

Balancing new ideas and existing expertise is a winning combination when it comes to creating connections between our employees. Daniel Reyes, product service manager, adds, “Culture has always been an important pillar for ServiceNow. With the growing team size, we have more opportunities to build real camaraderie in our team.”

Looking to the future

I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved so far in Switzerland, but we can’t rest on our laurels.

Just as we transformed during the pandemic to better reflect our customers’ needs at that time, we’re doing it again by adopting a vertical-focused strategy that creates new solutions and products designed for specific industries, such as financial services and manufacturing.

It’s a similar approach to our Lunch and Learns, but on a whole new level. We go right into our customers’ industries to understand the issues they’re facing. This helps us become better advisers on the solutions they need.

One thing about the future is for sure: Our customers’ needs will continue to evolve, and we must evolve with them. By listening to our customers and equipping our teams with the knowledge and support they need to do their jobs best, I know the next 10 years in Switzerland will be even more successful.

Eierle said it best: “The sky's the limit. We’re adding more capabilities, more functionalities, more workflows to digitise more and more processes end to end. We’re now embarking into industry specialised solutions, so more verticals and specialised capabilities for finance, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, etc. I see no slowdown in our growth.”

Join a company where your work makes a difference. Explore career opportunities at ServiceNow.

© 2022 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved. ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, Now, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of ServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company names, product names, and logos may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.